SINCE OUR LAST NEWS ON THIS ELECTRONIC LIST, NEW RESOURCES HAVE BEENNEGOTIATED BY ELRA AND ARE NOW AVAILABLE. THESE ARE:

SPEECH AND RELATED RESOURCES

ELRA-S0035 PHONOLEX (BAS/DFKI):

PHONOLEX CONSISTS OF A SIMPLE LIST OF WORD FORMS (666,237 INFLECTED WORDS)WITH A SET OF FEATURES E.G. ORTHOGRAPHY (GERMAN 'UMLAUTS' IN LATEX FORMAT,CAPITAL NOUNS, OLD GERMAN SPELLING RULES), LINGUISTIC INFORMATION (NOUNS,VERBS, ETC.), PRONUNCIATION AND A LIST OF EMPIRICAL PRONUNCIATIONS.

A PECULIARITY OF MEDICAL DICTIONARIES IN GERMAN SPEAKING COUNTRIES HAS TO BETAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION: DOCTORS IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND SWITZERLAND MAYNOT USE THE ORIGINAL TECHNICAL TERMS IN LATIN BUT THE LATIN WORD IN ASPELLED MANNER OR A GERMAN TECHNICAL TERM (SEE EXAMPLES BELOW). MEDICALDICTIONARIES THEREFORE HAVE TO CONTAIN THREE DIFFERENT TERMS.

TECHNICAL TERM TECHNICAL TERM TECHNICAL TERMIN LATIN IN GERMAN SPELLING IN GERMAN

4,286 SUFFIXES AND PREFIXES, PLUS INFORMATION ON THEIR VERBAL, NOMINAL ORADJECTIVAL BASES OR ON THE VERBAL BASIS OF GRECO-LATIN ITEMS. THISDICTIONARY DOES NOT INCLUDE THE SUFFIXES CONTAINED IN THE DICTIONARY OFFRENCH VERBS (ELRA-L0021) AND WORDS (ELRA-L0022) SUCH AS -AGE, -MENT, -IF, -OIR.

38,965 ENTRIES IN LOWER CASES WITH ACCENTS, CONTROLLED ON THE GUIDEMICHELIN, WITHOUT LOCALITIES; A LINK CAN BE MADE TO THE DICTIONARY OF WORDS(ELRA-L0022) WHICH CONTAINS INHABITANTS' NAMES AND THEIR CORRESPONDENCE WITHTOWN NAMES.

BELOW IS SOME INFORMATION ON THE WORKSHOP'MODELING PRONUNCIATION VARIATION FOR AUTOMATIC SPEECH RECOGNITION'THAT WILL BE ORGANIZED FROM 4-6 MAY 1998 IN THE NETHERLANDS.MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORKSHOP IS AVAILABLE AHTTP://LANDS.LET.KUN.NL/PRON-VAR/.

AJO,HELMER

ADVANCE NOTICE ESCA TUTORIAL AND RESEARCH WORKSHOP ON

MODELING PRONUNCIATION VARIATION FOR AUTOMATIC SPEECH RECOGNITION

4-6 MAY 1998

AT ROLDUC, A FORMER MONESTARY IN THE CITY OF KERKRADE IN THE SOUTH OF THE NETHERLANDS

AUTOMATIC SPEECH RECOGNIZERS (ASR'S) HAVE IMPROVED SUBSTANTIALLY DURING THE LAST DECADE. IT HAS NOW BECOME POSSIBLE TO USE ASR'S FOR MANY PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. HOWEVER, WHEN ASR'S ARE USED (AND TESTED) UNDER REALISTIC CONDITIONS, THE PROBLEM OF PRONUNCIATION VARIATION ALMOST ALWAYS EMERGES. THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED BY SEVERAL RESEARCH GROUPS, AND MORE AND MORE EFFORT IS SPEN NOWADAYS ON SOLVING THIS PROBLEM (SEE E.G. THE STEADILY GROWING NUMBER OF PUBLICATIONS ON THIS TOPIC, ESPECIALLY IN CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS).

DURING THIS WORKSHOP WE WANT TO DISCUSS THIS PROBLEM IN DEPTH AND THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH IT COULD BE SOLVED. ALTHOUGH PART OF PRONUNCIATION VARIATION IS CERTAINLY LANGUAGE-DEPENDENT (I.E. THE PHONOLOGICAL AND PHONETIC PROCESSES DIFFER BETWEEN LANGUAGES), A LARGE PART OF THE VARIATION IS LANGUAGE INDEPENDENT. FURTHERMORE, THE TECHNIQUES THAT CAN BE USED TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM, I.E. TO MODEL PRONUNCIATION VARIATION FOR ASR, ARE USUALLY LANGUAGE-INDEPENDENT.

WWW-SITE

UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORKSHOP IS AVAILABLE A HTTP://LANDS.LET.KUN.NL/PRON-VAR/.